I am about to accept my financial aid award for this year and am having some last minute anxiety. I am planning on attending UIUC this fall and have visited the campus, it is beautiful down there and the school seems to promote a good environment for its students. In any other economy I would have absolutely no second thoughts about attending but I have been browsing over the forums and the job market looks even worse than I had expected. Due to scholarships, I will need to take somewhere in the realm of 80-90k over the course of three years. As far as employment after law school goes, I am not set on BIGLAW, though if I were to take a private sector job I would like to be able to live comfortably without IBR, I am single and have no other financial commitments so I do not need very much to be comfortable. If I were to decide I wanted to go for the public sector/public interest I would of course be relying on IBR and my main concern would be finding a fulfilling job preferably helping the disadvantaged. With the scenario and goals I have stated what do you guys think about this choice? I am completely crazy to be taking out this much in loans or would this be fairly manageable pending median or higher grades at Illinois?

Eruannon wrote:Glad to hear it from someone going to a peer school (assuming from the avatar). Mind sharing the loan burden on your end?

I have a scholarship now, but at the time of making my decision I actually chose Iowa at sticker, so I did go through the whole debt justification process. Coincidentally, Illinois was actually my first choice as that is where I attended for undergrad, and I would have been extremely happy to continue there for another there years, even at sticker price.

Ultimately, I looked at it the same way you are. There is a chance I could end up at a larger firm, and I would certainly jump at that opportunity, if nothing else but to put a dent in the loans. Otherwise, IBR and LRAP make jobs with lower starting salaries possible. Regarding the current economy, I wasn't about to let something that fluctuates so much determine whether or not I can pursue the career I want. Who knows, in 5 or 7 years we may all be thinking how silly we were for worrying about the economy so much when choosing whether or not to go to law school. Or we could all be homeless. That's life though - often times large decisions involve big risks.

You also have to keep in mind... this is the internet. Yes, the market is bad but it is "trendy" right now to bitch and moan about unemployment. There are lots of people out there making it seem a little worse than it really is. Don't let something as silly as internet forums decide for you whether or not to go to law school. If you were attending a T4 at sticker I might be singing a different tune, but Illinois is a top notch school. Work hard and you'll be fine.

Kat, Thanks for the reassurance. I agree that it has to come back, at least a little bit. I think a lot of the disappointment that people explode onto forums is because of expectations that were placed to high in this economy, BIGLAW or bust kind of attitudes which are simply unrealistic. Gonna suck it up, accept the loans and have a have a good first year.